What Do You Call A Fish With No Eyes?
by EmeraldIslands
Summary: Starfire is struggling to cope with temporary blindness. She finds comfort from the most unlikely source. Oneshot.


Starfire sank down into the couch in the common room of Titan's Tower and covered her face with her hands. "This is... not nice." she whispered as her bright green eyes began to water.

Robin gently wrapped his arm around her. "What's wrong, Starfire? The flash from Dr. Light's bomb only _temporarily_ blinded you. It's not permanent."

"Definitely Star," Cyborg reassured her, "if you were blinded permanently, Your eyes would be hurting real bad." Robin shot him a look, and he quickly added, "They're not, are they?

"No, Cyborg. They are not. But..." she removed her hands from her face and stared blankly in his direction. The skin around her eyes was puffy and red. "Are you...staring? I feel as though everybody is staring at me, but I do not have any way of knowing." She frowned. "I can not help feeling very...helpless, Robin." He pulled her closer to him, and her head found his shoulder.

Beast Boy turned off the game he was playing and turned around to join the conversation. "S'okay, Star. I know how you feel."

Cyborg rolled his eyes. "Now's not the time, B."

"But..." he protested.

Starfire angrily jerked her head towards Beast Boy. "I am sorry, friend. But you do not know how I am feeling."

Beast Boy rubbed the back of his head with one hand. Trying to look anywhere but her blank, cloudy eyes. "Actually, uh... yeah, I do."

"Okay, so tell us, BB. How the heck do you know what it feels like to be blind?" Cyborg snapped, thinking his friend was yet again making a fool of himself.

"Sure, dude! Story time!" He rubbed his hands together and ran to the kitchen. The Titans watched as he grabbed a clear glass cookie jar, dumped all its contents into a pile on the counter, and then filled it with cold tap water. He carefully carried it back into the living room as Robin softly whispered to a very confused Starfire, explaining what was going on. He placed it on the coffee table and sat cross-legged on the floor beside it. He was grinning widely.

Cyborg shook his head and sat down on the couch beside Raven, "I don't know what this is, but I don't think I'm ready for it." She silently nodded and went back to reading her book.

"Well, it was a long time ago. Back when I was like... ten. I was still living with the Doom Patrol, remember?" he waited, and Starfire nodded so he continued. "Well, Rita went out shopping, and the guys were working out. So I figured I'd find something fun to shift into."

Cyborg raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Well, I was still practicing my powers then. I couldn't turn into anything bigger than me. You're so forgetful, Cy. Anyways..." Cyborg just stared blankly at him. "I was looking through an animal encyclopedia. You know, to see if I could find anything cool." He glanced again at Starfire. She was facing towards the paused television, but she seemed to still be listening. She had also stopped crying. Robin caught his gaze and nodded for him to continue.

"So I found this fish that looked really awesome because it was see-through. I mean, you could see all its guts and stuff. Cool, right? So I filled the bathtub with water, and I looked at the picture, and I turned into this awesome fish."

Raven gasped sarcastically. "Wow. That was truly the best story I've ever heard," she said, still staring at the book in her lap.

Beast Boy waved his hands at her. "Dude, I'm not done yet! Okay, so I turned into this fish. But what I didn't know was that the type of fish that I was...can't see. It literally has no eyeballs."

Raven put her book down, Cyborg raised an eyebrow, and Starfire let out a small gasp. Beast Boy, taking note of all of this, smirked. "So I was totally freaked out, right? I had no way of knowing if I had actually transformed or not because, well, I didn't have any eyeballs. I had no idea what was going on. I guess I probably looked pretty stupid, just a random see-through fish with no eyeballs, frantically swimming in circles... but I was actually like scared. I didn't know it was perfectly reasonable that I couldn't see. Luckily Rita came home like, five minutes before that, and I guess she found a little fish in her tub and knew it was me. Heh." Still grinning, he rubbed at the back of his neck with one hand.

Nobody really said anything, so Cyborg cleared his throat. "You are one weird little green dude. A see-through, eyeless fish? Really?"

"I figured you'd say something like that. Here, watch." The titans all leaned forward as Beast Boy stood up on the coffee table and leaned over the jar of water. "Ladies and gents! I give you, the Mexican Cave Tetra!" One split second, and he was gone. In his place was a small fish swimming in slow circles in the glass jar.

Cyborg got off the couch and sank down at eye-level to the jar. "Woah." Raven silently joined him.

"What is it? What does he look like?" Starfire asked enthusiastically.

Robin took her arm and led her to the bowl on the table. "It...he really has no eyes, Star. There just isn't anything there. And he really is see-through. He's this weird pinkish green colour and... I can see his heart."

Starfire nodded. Then she smiled and leaned in towards the bowl, pressing her nose up against the cool glass. "Thank you, friend Beast Boy. You do know how I feel. And now I do not feel as bad, because you feel the same way I do!" Unbeknownst to Starfire, the fish in the bowl swam a happy backflip in acknowledgment. Raven smiled.

Then all in one motion, the fish swam to the top of the bowl, jumped straight up into the air, and vanished, leaving a dripping wet Beast Boy standing in its place. He beamed down at everybody while rubbing his eyes as they adjusted to the light. "Told you so!"

After blinking several times and making sure he could see again, he stepped down off of the coffee table. Cyborg handed him a towel out of nowhere, and he rubbed it through his hair, before shaking his head. "Aww, I'm soaked. I might as well go take a shower." He turned and started to leave. "I'll fix the cookies late-"

Robin ran up behind him and grabbed his shoulder. "Beast Boy," he whispered. "...thanks." He gestured over his shoulder at Starfire, now laughing and smiling with the others.

Beast Boy winked. "No prob, Rob."

He left through the sliding doors, and Robin was suddenly tackled to the floor from behind. He rolled over to find his girlfriend sitting on him, and she planted a kiss on his cheek. "Robin! My sight has returned!"

He grinned ear to ear. "Awesome, Starfire! Told you it wouldn't last long!"

She giggled and helped him up. "Yes, isn't it glorious? I can see Beast Boy as the Mexican Cave Tetra now! It sounded most exciting! Could you truly see his heart, Robin?"

He shrugged, and smiled as he pulled her close and hugged her. "Yeah, Star. It's pretty hard to miss."


End file.
